Books for FREE and ALMOST FREE

[marilyn peake]

Has anyone else noticed this? I can now buy “best-selling” books for free or almost for free on a regular basis. I’m the type of person who’s more than happy to pay full price for books in order to support the authors, but that’s actually becoming a bit of a challenge. Our local big-chain bookstores had been putting “30% off” to “Buy one, get a second book for 50% off” stickers on best-selling books about a month after they came out. Last week, I did a double take when I discovered a table of hard covers with a huge sign announcing “Best-selling books for $5.95” ... and all those books were brand new hard covers! Every day, Amazon offers brand new books by best-selling authors for $0.00 (FREE!) for the Kindle. I’m really curious as to why this is happening. Anyone know?

[Bryan Russell/Ink]

Generally those book are new, but not recently released. Often the paperback or trade paperbacks are already out, or about to come out. When those versions arrive the hardcover sales drop drastically. If they have a lot of copies of some bestsellers in hardcover they'll sell them at a reduced price. If they don't they'll probably just get remaindered.

[HillaryJ]

I've read from a few writer blogs that authors who's works are being converted to Kindle format will sometimes offer an older book for free to try to hook new readers. I have seen the success of that move debated, but don't know that it could easily be quantified. Just like it would be difficult to quantify how many of us become faithful to a newly-discovered author after borrowing a book from a friend of finding one in the laundry room of an apartment building...which is weirdly how I discovered several of my favorite authors. In your face, million-dollar matching software.

I've also picked up a few of the free Kindle books and discovered that they aren't complete, but the first three chapters or so of a newer book. Teasers.

[marilyn peake]

Ink and Hillary,

Thanks for that information. I think I've been seeing very recent offers that might be more competitive, though. This past week, I received coupons to pre-order brand new hardcover and paperback books for less money than many Kindle books. I've also been able to order special versions of Kindle novels that include an entire novel for free plus a free chapter for the soon-to-be-released sequel. Just wondered if anyone else had experienced this. I had started buying all my books on Kindle, but I'm thinking about buying paperbacks and hardcovers again when they're released before the Kindle version and are cheaper or the same price as Kindle books.

[Mira]

I've seen the same thing as Ink - hardcovers drastically reduced right before the paperback. Sometimes, Amazon will send me the hardcover, when I ordered the paperback, which really, really bugs me. I don't like hardbacks. :p

But if you're seeing other discounts, I suspect one of these, although I might be wrong, of course:

a. Amazon is trying to lure people into buying exclusively for the Kindle and is willing to take a huge price loss to do it, while it secretly builds it's new empire and prepares for world domination, all hail our new overlord, Amazon, or

b. Publishers are testing the waters to see just how many readers are really out there. Also, they may be doing something rather similar to a.

C. Bookstores are trying to copy what Walmart did - lure people in to buy low discount bestsellers, hoping they'll stay and buy other books. They may also be trying to do something similar to a.

So, my guess is that it's not a permanent price drop, it's a marketing tool.

Interesting to think about though.